Glendale Union High School District

Five are Finalists from Sunnyslope

    Five seniors from Sunnyslope High School have advanced to the Finalist round in the 2009 National Merit Program, an outstanding achievement for them as well as for the school. Those students are Mary Clair Hettinger, Austin Krause, Jennifer Aronson, Katherine Moore and Will Auther.

    More than 1.5 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools entered the 2009 National Merit Program by taking the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

    To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record, be recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

    The Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student’s self-descriptive essay and information about the Semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities.

 

Approximately 15,000 Semifinalists advanced to the Finalist level and it is from this group that all National Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen. Three types of National Merit Scholarship awards will be offered in 2009. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis. About 1,100 corporate-sponsored scholarships will be provided by some 300 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.
    In addition, approximately 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
More than half of all Finalists win a scholarship. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2009 will be announced in four cycles, concluding in July.

Holder, Best Buddies lauded
    The Best Buddies Chapter at Washington High School has been recognized for outstanding achievements.
David Holder, chapter president, has been acknowledged for the Most Outstanding Chapter President for the month of April. The club is sponsored by WHS teacher Joe Hummel.

Madison Elementary School District

Park strikes gold at State Science Fair
    Madison Park had a tremendous showing at the recent State Science Fair. Ten students from the REACH program participated with six taking first place in their divisions.
    Taking first place and a gold medal for the 5-6 Grade category of 281 students were Alice Shambayati, Engineering; Ethan Pierson, Environmental Science; and Brad Solliday, Cellular & Molecular.
    Taking first place and a gold medal for the 7-8 Grade category of 449 students were Kyle Chapman, Engineering; Gabriel Salmon, Physics; and Gavin Singer and Kevin Burg, Engineering.
    Additionally, Chapman received a $50 check and certificate as a Sponsor Award from the American Hydrological Society and Salmon received a certificate and medal as a Sponsor Award from the United States Navy.
Students Andy Weiss, Matt McMurry, and Tim Millea also participated.  This is the first year Park has participated in the Science Fair.

Simis collecting cartridges, box tops
    Madison Simis Elementary, 7302 N. 10th St., is collecting all used ink and toner cartridges to submit for a $3 rebate at Staples. Any cartridge will be gratefully accepted; collection boxes are located outside the office and in the teacher workroom. Note that the office will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday all summer.
    The money that is earned through cartridge recycling goes toward classroom supplies to cover the budget shortfall.
    The school also is also collecting General Mills Pink Box Tops for Education, which can be dropped off at the office as well.

Deadline extended for language class
    The deadline to register for Madison’s Foreign Language Summer Institute has been extended to May 11. Two four-week sessions of Spanish will be offered to students in grades preschool through eighth. Your child does not need to attend a Madison School to participate.
    The first session runs June 1-25; the second runs July 6-30. Each session costs $195 and includes all materials. All classes are held at Madison Heights School located at 7150 N. 22nd St. Class times vary depending on grade level.
    Call 602-664-7956 for more information.

Rose Lane earns education award
    Madison Rose Lane School was honored April 24 as a Distinguished Title I School by the Department of Education.
    The National Association of State Title I Directors and the U.S. Department of Education awarded Rose Lane the designation for successfully closing the achievement gap between student groups. Rose Lane was one of 57 schools throughout the nation to be honored at a recent ceremony in San Antonio.
    Title I schools are identified as those in which more than 40 percent of the student population qualifies for free and reduced lunch.

Sign up now for Meadows volleyball
    Registrations for volleyball camp at Madison Meadows Middle School are currently being accepted. Camp takes place June 1-12 for girls in Grades 4-8 and covers serving, passing, setting, blocking, and attacking.  Cost is $100. Contact Coach Isabel Jordan at 602-664-7600 to register.

Simis team heads to World Finals
    Simis will be represented at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals held in Ames, Iowa this month. Lynn Dolan’s third-grade team recently competed at the State Finals where it won the prestigious Ranatra Fusca award for exceptional creativity. As winner of this award, the team was extended an invitation to compete at the World Finals.
    Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program in which students creatively solve assigned problems in teams. They then bring their solutions to the various competitions.
    The winning team participated in the “Superstition” category in which they were to create and present a performance that includes two actual superstitions and an original superstition created by the team. The team was to show the events that caused the original superstition in a performance including a humorous narrator, a costume worn by two or more team members at the same time, and a transformation of one setting into a different setting.

Osborn Elementary School District

Clarendon heads to Anaheim, Calif.
    Clarendon Advanced Band will perform in the National Music in the Parks Competition in Anaheim, Calif., during the weekend of May 15. The advanced band received a rating of “Excellent” in the recent Arizona Music Educators Association Annual Pageant of Bands festival.
    Students are fundraising to cover the costs. Tax credit donations can be made to Clarendon School www.Osborn Schools.org and the Osborn Educational Foundation www.osbornnet.org/OEF to support this exciting opportunity.

Schools wrap up with ‘showcases’
    Clarendon’s Showcase is scheduled for May 7 and will include performances by Baillet Folkorico, Kazoo Kids, Poetry Club, Ballet, Violins and Fit Kids programs. There will be presentations from the Zen Gardens, Zoo to You, Newspaper/Technology, Chess Club, and Read About Club.
    Longview School will host its 21st Century Showcase event on May 15 at 6 p.m. in the auditorium. Programs offered include the Phoenix Theatre, Newspaper, Puppet Theatre, Book Pals, Zoo to You, Math Attack, Lego Robotics, Yearbook, Yoga, Fun With Fitness, Girl Talk, Ballet Folklorico and Tap Dance.
    Don’t miss the Osborn Middle School’s Showcase on May 13 from 3:45 to 5 p.m., featuring culinary arts, playback theater, jazzy junk, Jr. journalism, Washington D.C. Law Review and back to basics math facts.

Solano students sing their presidents
    The fifth and sixth grade choirs, under the direction of Nancy Heath, each performed at a fundraiser breakfast at the YMCA. Both groups did a fabulous job and each received a standing ovation.
    One of the songs the fifth grade performed was, “The Rap of the Presidents” The song covers all of the Presidents, in order, from George Washington to Barack Obama, citing an accomplishment of each one.

Montecito School celebrates gym
    Montecito School held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate its new Multi-purpose room on March 24. Funds were not available when Montecito opened in 1999, so Montecito was the only district school that did not have in-door physical education facilities.
    Current bond dollars were used to provide the facility complete with sports flooring and enhanced outdoor basketball courts. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was a festive event with band, choir, and physical education demonstrations by Montecito students.
    Coach Debra Fields choreographed the entire student body in a fitness demonstration. The award-winning Osborn Middle School cheerleaders took part in the festivities as well.

Phoenix Union High School District

Maupin resigns from board
    The Rev. Jarrett Maupin II submitted a letter resigning as a member of the Phoenix Union High School District Governing Board member, Friday, April 17.
    Maupin, 21, plans to pursue a career opportunity that requires him to be away from Phoenix, according to the letter.
    Maupin represented Ward 2, which includes an area of South Phoenix roughly south of McDowell and east of Central Avenue. He was elected to the Board in November 2006, and began his four-year term in January of 2007. His term was to end in 2010.
    The district will work with the Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools to find a replacement for Maupin on the seven-member board. Maupin’s successor must reside in the ward (Ward 2) they represent.   

Impressive trio visits North
    Three Nobel Laureates—biologist Baruch Blumberg and physicists David Gross and Steven Weinberg—participated in a one-hour question-and-answer session with students from the Phoenix Union High School District on April 2.
    The event, which took place at North High School, was part of Arizona State University’s Origins Symposium, organized by Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist and director of the Origins Initiative at ASU. Krauss, who moderated the discussion, is the author of the bestseller “The Physics of Star Trek.”
    As part of the Origins Symposium at ASU, the speakers, along with Krauss, are taking the symposium on the road to meet with high school students. It is is an opportunity for high school students to find out about the process of becoming a scientist, what it feels like to win a Nobel Prize, and what it was that made these Nobel Laureates want to devote their lives to the study of the universe.

Fashion students show stuff at MT
    Metro Tech’s Fashion and Interior Technology program held its 13th Annual Fashion Show on April 16. The show, entitled FashioNation, featured international fashions. The 75 students in the Career and Technical Education program served as models, choreographers, directors, stage and lighting technicians and clothing designers.
    More than 50 student-models walked the 40-foot runway. Cosmetology students provided make-up and hair styling for the models, Photo Imaging students photographed the event and Film and Digital Media Arts students videotaped the event. A freshman honors English class designed the buildings from many of the countries that were represented in the fashion show.
    This is the final assessment for Fashion and Interior Technology students, who learn artistic principles and techniques for the fashion and interior design industries.

Students fare well in ‘Brainstorm’
    Four seniors have represented Central this year in the Cox Cable show Brainstorm, which airs on Cox Channel 7. Irving Talavera, John Hunting, Phillip Fauntleroy and Zachary Pavlisick won an opening round match earlier this year, beating Horizon Honors and Seton Catholic, and advanced to the semi-finals where the Bobcats faced Canyon del Oro and Basis Charter School.
    The Bobcats finished second, but their point total was high enough to earn a wild-card spot in the finals, which was taped April 1. Central finished third in state, winning $250 for the National Honor Society.

Students named to All-State team
    Camelback High juniors Jahnee Tucker and Anita Ward were named to the Class 5A All-State team as Honorable Mentions. The Spartans were 20-10 this year.
    Senior Mireya Hernandez, who won the State 3-point shooting contest, was selected to play in the State All-Star game, May 30 at US Airways Arena.

North Ètudiants sont bons (are good)
    North students traditionally do well in the National French Exam, and this year was no exception. Two students took first place honors in the state—Samuel Greess in third-year French, and Jan Ly in fourth-year French.
    Other top finishers were Edith Preciado, second place in third-year French Sarah Loh, third place in second-year French, Edie Adams, fourth place in third-year French and Theodora Ballew, fifth place, second year French.
    In all, 19 students finished in the top 10 of their respective categories in the National French Exam. 

Abechucho earns full scholarship
    Usually, when Phoenix Union students win scholarships through the Careers in Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), they come from Metro Tech. But this year, Alexis Abechucho came out of a Family and Consumer Science class at North High. Her Foods teacher, Christina Hahn, who is a former chef, encouraged Abechucho to enter the contest.
    Abechucho had to write an essay that explained why she wanted to pursue culinary arts, competed in two cooking rounds, and interviewed with the founder of C-CAP. In the end, she earned a full tuition scholarship of $49,597 to attend the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vt. She starts in September.

Washington Elementary School District

Two honored in writing contest
    Stories by two sixth graders at Washington Elementary have received Honorable Mention in The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration. The honored students are Alexis H. for her story “Bang! Bang!” and James S. for his story “For the Love of Animals.” The students’ names and story titles will appear in Grannie Annie, Vol. 4, to be released in May, and on the Grannie Annie Web site.
    An anthology of family stories written by young people, Grannie Annie, Vol. 4, is the fourth-annual publication of The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration. Participating students interview an older relative and write a story about an event from their family’s history. Grannie Annie, Vol. 4, includes 26 stories written by authors in 15 states. Submissions were received from across the country.

Volunteers, more honored at dinner
    The Lamp of Learning Award were presented in March by the Washington Elementary School District to staff, community and business members who have made outstanding contributions to the students of the district. This prestigious award is the highest recognition given in the Washington District.
    The following people were among the honorees recognized at the awards dinner on May 1.
    Business Partner/Community Member: Debbie Garcia, Business Partner, Resource Center coordinator from Valle del Sol, serving Royal Palm Middle School
    Volunteer: Herbert McGinty, Mountain View School
    Certified Staff: Camilla Baptiste-Welch, kindergarten teacher, Orangewood School; Kathrin Freitag, program coach, Orangewood School; James Spellman, Student Service specialist, Mountain View School
    Administrator: Lori Ritz, principal of Sunnyslope School

Private and Charter Schools
Students take trip to Catalina
    This year 17 students from AmeriSchools Academy in Phoenix earned a seat to go to Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI). Each of these students showed great character while at CIMI and they grew both academically and personally. The students participated in different hands-on activities and played games to reinforce the material they just learned.
    Some of the CIMI activities consisted of snorkeling (both day and night), kayaking, hiking, dissecting, rock climbing, etc. The also participated in different CIMI Labs, which consisted of studying oceanography, geology, the deep sea, fisheries, plankton, algae, invertebrates, vertebrates, and astronomy.
    CIMI was a chance for the students to get out of their comfort zones and try new experiences, which they may never have again. The students were stretched physically, emotionally, academically and personally during the five days at CIMI. These students will forever remember CIMI and look back on it with great fondness.

Xavier takes second at mock trial event
    Xavier College Prep’s Xavier-Elias Romley Mock Trial Team captured two of the top four places in the Arizona State High School Mock Trial Tournament, held March 28.
    Xavier Team 4, also known as Team North, took second place. The team was coached by attorney Stacy Hyder, and included students Lily Altavena, Maeve Cardwell, Camille Gardner, Purcell Liddy, Megan Linders, Sara McCabe, Monica Maric and timekeeper Akunna Idehura.
    Xavier Team 1, called Xavier South, captured fourth place. The team was coached by attorneys Laurie Herman and Ben Runkle and included students Josette Barsano, Lauren Davis, Kristin D’Souza, Devon McLaughlin, Jennifer Milazzo, Molly Runkle and timekeeper Paula Salazar.
    Sara McCabe from Team North and Mari Carmen Perez-Vargas from Xavier Team 2 were named to the All State Mock Trial Team.

‘Magis’ summer program at SFX
    St. Francis Xavier School offers a summer school program for students entering kindergarten through eighth grades in the fall. The summer program runs Monday through Friday, from June 8-26.
    The summer curriculum is designed to help reinforce grade level skills in addition to providing enrichment and exploratory opportunities Courses are taught by qualified teachers. Registration will end May 29.
    The Summer School brochure is available online at http://www.sfxphx.org/ st_Francis/programs/summer.html.

Mayor Gordon to visit Tesseract
    Tesseract School held its spring fundraiser, “Green Tie Gala, Celebrating Paradise,” on March 20 at the InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa. The evening’s festivities included performances from Tesseract’s chorus and high school rock as well as a live and silent auction.
    Auction items included a lunch with Mayor Phil Gordon. Mayor Gordon will be at Tesseract School’s new middle and high school campus to have lunch with students on May 6.
    Proceeds from the gala go toward program enrichment, scholarships and facilities for Tesseract, a non-profit, independent private school for students in preschool through high school.